


In The Cold

by tonguetied123



Category: Voltron - Fandom, Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Flower shop/tattoo parlour AU, M/M, lance's mama is gonna kill him lol
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-04
Updated: 2017-05-04
Packaged: 2018-10-27 21:00:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,449
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10816656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tonguetied123/pseuds/tonguetied123
Summary: just a short AU I wrote when I should have been doing homework lol, hope you enjoy :)





	In The Cold

Every since Keith took up his part-time job at the flower shop he had hated it. After school, he would dread going to work, and during the weekends he would have to drag himself to the shop. Sure it was nice to have money and to be able to pay for his own shit, but some days he wondered if it was even worth it to deal with all of the old ladies and snooty soccer moms that came through looking for plants and things to show off to the other ladies in the neighborhood.  
Besides always dealing with them, he also had to deal with the crippling boredom that would always hit him when the store would lull. Most days he just sat at the counter and played on his phone but after the shop owner caught him one too many times on it he was forced to leave it in the back. Now he just stares through the windows at the building across the street.  
Nobody had bought the building since it went on sale. It had been years since anyone had walked into it, and by now Keith was sure they would condemn the place any day and tear it down. So after staring at it for as long as he had, Keith would have thought he would be able to see any changes to it if for any reason they would happen.  
But then one day too late, he realized that someone had bought that vacant building. He couldn’t tell if he was sad or glad. At least now it wouldn’t be an eyesore for him to stare at in between customers. But at the exact same time, Keith had a hard time dealing with change, and this seemed to be a big change to him.  
Keith didn’t know why but he held a small form of resentment at the person who could have possibly bought that building. He reasoned it was because he didn’t want to watch this person pour money into it and just forget about it. He knew it was a money pit, but he wasn’t sure if the person who bought it realized this.  
As the days went by, Keith started to notice how they decorated the shop. After of course they had had probably hundreds of specialists and different professionals come through and look everything, they finally worked on making everything work better.  
The walls were painted a dull orange, and on another wall, there was a pale blue. Which almost made Keith cringe every time he looked at it. They also tore out the entire front wall and replaced it with windows the entire length of the wall with a glass door.  
The more this person added the more Keith wanted to go through and tear it down. Not only had this person wasted money on the whole building, they were also messing with something that should have been left alone. At least that's how it was in Keith’s mind.  
Keith stewed on the entire situation even after he went home. He complained to his brother Shiro that the reason he was angry was that they had blocked half the street and it was hard to get in. He told Pidge it was because of the noise from the construction and the annoying realtors and people who were fixing the building.  
He didn’t know what to tell himself though.  
-|-|-|-  
Lance had been into art since he was a child, he loved the way the pencil or the paintbrush felt against the page, and he loved the way everything looked once he was finished drawing it.  
His mother, on the other hand, had always detested the mess it made, and how it usually led to her carpet being ruined. Lance knew his mother loved all of the art he created and wanted him to go onto being something big, but he also knew she was ready for him to leave the house and take all of his paint with him. It had especially come to annoy her when he would come home from school covered in pen all over his arms and sometimes his legs.  
Even after being yelled at for most of his life about not coloring on his body there was always those days that Lance would just blank out for a couple of seconds and all of his fear of being punished disappears and he suddenly has patterns and faces and quotes all up and down his right arm. He could never color or draw with his right hand so his left hand had never had to deal with the supposed trauma of being colored.  
His mother had always gone on and on about the dangers of cancer and how lead poisoning was a real threat if he kept on this path. So you could possibly imagine the horror when Lance came home the day after his eighteenth birthday with a small blue lion on his shoulder blade. They probably wouldn’t have noticed it either if Lance had just kept his mouth shut and not bragged to all of his siblings.  
It had been Rosa who had gone and told, he still held a small grudge against her. But now at nineteen, he had decided to quit his job at the local Walmart and go for something more up his alley.

The building he walked up now was an old building but was obviously renovated to look more modern. A large sign in one of the many windows in the front read ‘tattoo artists wanted’.  
Lance took a big breath and let it out slowly as he confidently walked into the tattoo shop with his resume clutched tightly in his hand.  
-|-|-|-  
The truck had arrived with new plants, and Keith was tasked with arranging them around the store. He had been so caught up with his work that he almost hadn’t noticed a lanky boy walk up the street and stop in front of the shop across the road.  
Keith stopped for a second to watch the boy walk into the shop finally and talk to the only man inside the building. The man had a great big bushy mustache that he continually messed with.  
The two of them talked for a moment before the man motioned for him to sit and took the resume. He gave it a quick look before he shook the boy’s hand. The boy immediately perked up and shook the man’s hand enthusiastically before waving to the man as he walked out of the store.  
Keith watched him jump into the alley just next to the building as he started whooping loudly. Keith hadn’t noticed how long he had stood there staring at the boy until suddenly bright blue eyes connected with his and Keith reeled back behind a shelf, almost dropped the potted plant in his hands.  
“Fuck fuck fuck fuck,” Keith chanted this as he tried to get his heart to stop beating. After a couple of seconds, he suddenly heard the bell ring and peeked through the plants to see the boy walk through the front door.  
His brown hair swept in front of his eyes and he reached up a hand to push it out of his face. Keith immediately straightened up, scowling at himself for letting this boy get the best of him with just a look.  
He laid the plant on the shelf and went back to the container of potted plants before he got behind on his work. Keith was hyper-aware of where the boy was walking and knew that he was browsing through the store by going up and down the aisles.  
“Excuse me, but what kinda plant is this?” The boy called to him from the end of the aisle.  
Keith looked up from the plants he had picked up to see him pointing to the large row of hibiscus.  
“Those are hibiscus, but this one is kinda special. We get them special order, they’re called the Taiwan Marilyn Monroe.”  
The boy nodded, “How much is it?”  
“Well it’s special order, so it’s kinda more than other of its kind, its about twenty bucks.”  
The boy ran his hand through his hair and blew air out really slowly. He stood there thinking for a second before picking it up carefully off the shelf. “I’ll take it, want to ring me up really quick?” He looked down at Keith with hopeful and kind eyes, and that's when Keith noticed their height difference. The boy was only a couple of inches taller than him, but it might as well have been a foot with all the confidence he showed.  
Keith nodded numbly and walked stiffly to the counter. The boy slipped him the money and gave him a wide smile. “Name’s Lance, what’s yours?”  
Keith almost died, Lance was such a fuck boy name, but it fits him so well. “K-Keith.”  
Somehow the boy’s smile got even wider and he thrust out a hand at Keith. “Well hello Keith, it’s nice to meet you. I saw this really neat flower in your shop a couple of seconds ago and thought it looked like your eyes.”  
Keith stared at Lance blankly for a second as his face got visibly redder. Lance gave him a smile and left the plant on the counter before walking out of the shop.  
-|-|-|-  
It had been only a couple of days since Lance had met Keith in the flower shop, but every day after Lance got off work he would go into the shop and pester Keith until he forced him out of the shop or Lance left. Most of the time Lance would sit on the counter or walk through the aisles. Sometimes Lance would even point out the brightest or the most colorful flowers and compare them to Keith.  
This usually led to Lance being yelled at but it was worth it every time when he got to see the boy’s face blow up red.  
Lance had few regrets about all of his visits, and he especially was excited about his brand new job. His parent’s, on the other hand, was not as enthusiastic. His father had just given him a tired stare before throwing his hands up in the air and returning to the kitchen. His mother, on the other hand, had screamed at him for a good hour about the dangers of working in a place like that, about how many ruffians would go through there and would threaten him or worse, actually, go through with the threats!  
Lance had shrugged her complaints off, telling her that he been wanting a job like this forever and that it was perfect for him. He got to enjoy his art, and let other people enjoy it to.  
At this thought, his mother had finally given up trying to reason with him and had also thrown up her hands and stormed off into another part of the house to cool down.

Lance arrived to work on time and greeted Coran like he did every morning before stepping behind the counter to start the day. The job was great and was a perfect place for him, but Coran had told him he would need more experience before he was allowed to actually tattoo people. Lance had nodded at this and asked if any other positions were open and gotten his job at the cash register.  
He couldn’t complain, he was happy that he was even allowed in the building let alone working there. Plus whenever he saw Keith through the huge windows it was always a great sight to see.  
Lance thought back to when he had first talked to Keith. He almost didn’t have the courage to do it. Keith was obviously out of his league and wasn’t going to talk to him like they were friends. Lance really had lost his courage when he had seen Keith bend over to pick up more plants.  
But then suddenly words had fallen out of his face and he had almost regretted it. Until Keith had responded and Lance regained all of his composure.  
He was still happy that he had done it, Keith was turning out to be one of his best friends besides Hunk. Maybe he would invite Keith out for lunch during his break and they could actually hang out like friends.  
Before Lance even knew it, the work day was over. “Coran Coran, the gorgeous man! I must say that it is time for my departure!”  
Coran stuck his head around the back wall and smiled at Lance knowingly. “Lancy Lance, the foreign Prince, you know that the workday doesn’t end for another twenty minutes.”  
Lance smiled sheepishly. “Yes, I do know. But like, nobody's here and no one's stupid enough to come right now. The shops clean and everything’s in order.”  
Coran came and leaned against the counter. “Fine, but now you have to come in twenty minutes early tomorrow.”  
Lance’s smile fell, “Really?”  
“No not really, go hang out with Keith.” Coran smiled at Lance as he fled to grab his things and run out the door.  
“Thanks, Coran! You're the best!”  
-|-|-|-  
Keith was finishing up in the shop and was locking the door as Lance burst out of the tattoo shop and practically skipped across the road to Keith.  
He smiled at Lance’s enthusiasm. “Hey, Lance.”  
“What’s up Mullet!” Lance ran up and slung his arm over Keith’s shoulder tugging him in for a half hug that almost sent them both tipping over.  
“I don’t have a mullet, I’ve already told you this. My hairs just really long!” Keith complained.  
“Yeah sure ok. Hey, listen I was thinking that maybe we could go catch a quick bite to eat at that new coffee shop that opened up downtown?” Lance stared at Keith hopefully.  
He stared back blankly as he tried to compute everything he had just said. “Like a…date?”  
Lance flung back off of Keith and shook his hands furiously, “No! No! I mean like, it could be in some people’s eyes, but like this is a friendly date! Between friends and stuff!”  
Lance’s face was bright red as he avoided eye contact with Keith. “Well, I mean alright. But if we’re having a friendly one tonight, can I take you out for a romantic one this weekend?”  
Both of them stopped walking and Keith immediately regretted even saying anything. “If…that’s cool with you, y’know.”  
Lance finally nodded really hard at him and hesitantly took Keith’s hand in his before retracting back. “Sweet Jesus, your hands are cold!”  
Keith chuckled at this and took Lance’s hand in his again as they walked downtown.


End file.
